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Clerk's Corner
The Next Clerk's Convo will be April 20th at 4pm! This is a time for Session Clerks to gather over zoom and discuss whatever is needed about minutes, record retention, record preservation, or anything else polity or what is happening in the life of the church. No need to RSVP. Just join the zoom room at 4pm and bring questions with you if you have any. This is a time for clerks (or those do who the work of the clerk) and the direction of the conversation is led by the needs of the clerk.
The zoom info is:
Clerk's Convo: April 20th at 4pm Central Time Zone
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82477487297?pwd=ZXNIc29YRit3cTE2SGhsK0N5YzUrZz09
Meeting ID: 824 7748 7297
Passcode: 832216
Trigger Warning: Racism, Enslavement
On Monday, March March 27th, I began a journey to Montgomery, Alabama. I arrived on Tuesday, along with 42 other PCUSA mid-council leaders from around the country. This included Presbytery Stated Clerks, Presbyters, and Synod Presbyters. We gathered on Tuesday evening for a time of fellowship as we prepared for the next two days. We had met three times before, over zoom, to prepare for the journey ahead that was titled: The Pilgrimage to Montgomery. On Wednesday, we walked to The Legacy Museum: Enslavement to Mass Incarceration. My family and I visited The Legacy Museum in July 2021. In October 2021, they moved location (3 blocks away) to a larger facility that was able to turn the information located within the museum, into an experience. Participants were not able to take pictures within but instead walked through the museum and began with an emotional walk into a journey that many of us could never fathom. The experience began by walking into a large empty room where there was a solid wall that was a screen displaying a vast ocean scene. We read the words on the screen that presented to us the invitation of what it would be to embark on the middle passage from kidnapping to enslavement. Next, we walked through a corridor where the watery scene continued and the walkway was lined with statues of kidnapped Africans making their way off of the boats and through the sand. Many were chained and bound. They were all buried in the sand to their chests or necks. The looks on their faces portrayed their horror, their stolen innocence and stolen bodies; kidnapped from their lives and thrusted into a society not of their own doing where they would be seen as animals and not fully human. The pain was palpable. 12,000,000 stolen bodies from Africa. Millions died in the middle passage and ocean became their watery grave. 1/2 million kidnapped and made it to the shores of America where they would be bought and sold and forced to reproduce, long after the TransAtlantic Slave Trade became illegal, to continue enslavement in America.
We continued the journey of information learning more about how the dominant culture would work so diligently to keep the enslaved persons enslaved through means of physical, verbal, sexual, and emotional abuse. During the time of enslavement, half of all families were separated from one another with no thought of the pain it caused. Enslavement was seen as a necessary part of this country because of the way forced labor propelled this country forward to "make it what it was". The products of enslavement put America on the map. At one point, cotton accounted for nearly 70% of all exported goods. Cotton, where enslaved persons toiled from sun up to sun down, forced to work with inadequate food, water, protection from the sun, and even losing their lives in the process. The invention of the cotton gin only caused a higher need for enslaved persons.
We all have beliefs we were taught when we were young. For example, I grew up in rural Iowa and I was taught that enslavement was only something that took part in the South. But this wasn't true. For example, the road that would become "Broadway" in New York City was cut by enslaved persons. The wall for which Wall Street would be named, built by enslaved persons. Even when enslavement was no longer part of many areas in the north, the north still made it very difficult for freed Black persons to be in the north as many states, such as New York, would impose enormous fines for formerly enslaved persons being in the boundaries of those states. Many people in the north didn't want enslavement to necessarily end because of the financial value of slavery.
But when enslavement ended, enslavement didn't end. Former enslaved persons often found themselves as having no choice but to contract themselves out for food and board, in horrible conditions, to work the cotton farms and plantations. Secondary Enslavement would take part in what would become "Convict Leasing". And of course, the conversation can go on and on around the judicial system that continues to value the lives of the dominant culture over the lives of our Black and Brown siblings.
Following the Legacy Museum, we toured the National Monument of Peace and Justice. This has also been known as the Lynching Memorial. It represents the estimated 6,500 Black persons who were lynched in our country, including states in the North. While all of the reasons for lynching are horrible, some of them are completely heart-stopping. Children were lynched while parents were forced to watch. Babies. Toddlers. Whole families at a perceived indiscretion of the father - such as the father of was accused of saying something incorrectly to a white woman. We have often seen the racism that was perpetuated by white men during enslavement but friends, the racism of white women that led to the lynchings of many Black men by accusations, most of which were completely erroneous... I am still struggling to digest more of what I have seen. Yet at the same time recognize that my ability to spend the time digesting what I have learned is a privilege in and of itself.
And the church. Where was the church in all of us? Oh, my heart breaks. Many of you heard me say that before heading for this pilgrimage, we were to read: "What Kind of Christianity: The History of Slavery and Anti-Black Racism in the Presbyterian Church" by William Yoo. I know some of you have opted to purchase this book. Know that it is not an easy read. But it is an important one. I have decided that if anyone would like to read this book and discuss it along with me, I will start a Facebook page where we can discuss it. Please email me at pastorebailey@gmail.com if you would like to.
This trip was powerful and important. I urge our Presbytery to find a way to take a trip together there. We cannot continue to pretend the years of racism are behind us. We have a duty to understand our history, make reparations, and do better. Thank you for allowing me the time and space to take this trip.
Thank you,
Rev. Elissa Bailey
Presbytery of Great Rivers Stated Clerk
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